Spring profile: Tyler Winston wants no drop off after stellar freshman year

Tyler Winston had the type of freshman year in 2013 that makes you drool over the possibilities. The 6-foot-2, 180-pound wide receiver from Antelope was a pretty easy choice for Mountain West Freshman of the Year after collecting 58 catches for 858 yards and five touchdown in essentially eight games of work.

He nearly seemlessly filled the void left by Noel Grigsby’s season-ending knee surgery and quickly became a top weapon for quarterback David Fales after coach Ron Caragher made the decision to remove Winston’s redshirt and activate him for the third game of the season.

Winston didn’t play much in that first game at Minnesota and then made his first career catch the following week against Utah State. And oh what a catch it was, earning Winston a spot on SportsCenter’s Top 10.

Wide receiver Tyler Winston, the 2013 Mountain West Freshman of the Year, picks up 26 yards as part of a nine-catch, 171-yard performance against Wyoming. (Staff photo/Karl Mondon)

A week later, Winston was merely racking up six catches for 159 yards and a touchdown in a win at Hawaii. Then came eight catches for 151 yards and the game-winning 62-yard touchdown against Colorado State. And then nine catches for 171 yards and a TD against Wyoming. He capped the season with back-to-back 10-reception games against Navy and Fresno State.

Only six months ago, Winston was supposed to be redshirting. Now, he has a nice shiny trophy and is participating in spring ball as SJSU’s unquestioned No.1 receiver. What’s the journey been like for the budding star?

“At the beginning, I just tried to take in as much as I could, all the knowledge from the older guys, as much as they would teach me,” Winston said. “I did expect to redshirt, but then I got put in the position to play so I just had to trust my abilities and my knowledge that I learned from everybody else and play the game that I play.”

Winston, who today is celebrating his 19th birthday, said participating as a true freshman helped accelerate his growth.

“It helped a lot,” he said. “It helped me get used to the game because it’s a lot faster than high school. It basically just sped up the process instead of starting a year later.”

If you’re worried about Winston relaxing and possibly experiencing a drop off from his freshman year, he makes it sound like you shouldn’t.

“I’ve got to work on everything every day to get better still,” he said. “There’s no sense of entitlement. I’ve still got to work my butt off to stay in that spot.”

Just based on his numbers, it’s pretty obvious that as soon as Winston made that first catch against Utah State he was ready to be a major contributor. He agrees. Asked when he first felt comfortable out there, he said, “Pretty much that first catch. I had to get it out of the way. There were a lot of nerves before that. After I got that first catch, I realized it’s just football.”

A natural question is how did SJSU land a player this good and why weren’t colleges knocking down his door to get him? He was, unquestionably, the top-rated player from the Spartans’ 2013 signing class. He was rated a 3-star recruit with offers from UCLA, Oregon State, Washington State, Boise State, Fresno State, Colorado State and Nevada, according to Scout.com.

Yet Winston came to San Jose State, sticking with the Spartans despite the departure of former coach Mike MacIntyre. Winston gave his verbal commitment to MacIntyre and his staff just four days before Mac left to take the job at Colorado. He made his official visit to SJSU just after Caragher and his staff was put in place.

“I took my visit right after the new coaches got here and I got a chance to meet all of them and develop a relationship with them,” Winston said. “I liked that relationship I developed with them and I still liked all the guys that were here that I met before that so I didn’t want to change my decision.”

“Everyone’s like, ‘Why would you go here instead of UCLA?’,” Winston said. “I really just have a passion for playing receiver. I played defense in high school but it’s not really something that I had the first choice of doing.”

After the type of freshman season he delivered, does it make Winston feel assured that he made the right decision?

“Yeah, it does, but I’ve got to have no drop off this year and keep getting better and better every year.”